Embarrassed by accurate stories about his guilty plea to having inappropriate relationships with teenage girls, a Carroll police officer sued a local paper in 2017 to silence it. The paper was eventually vindicated in court, but only after $150,000 in legal costs almost forced it to shut down while the legal battle ran its course.
For too long, meritless lawsuits like this one have been used to intimidate and silence people. But on May 19, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed House File 472 to prevent these Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs). SLAPPs are often used to silence criticism from private citizens, whistleblowers, journalists, and activists. The main goal of a SLAPP lawsuit is not to win in court, but to target people with expensive and lengthy litigation.
The new law makes it easier for people who are being sued to have a SLAPP lawsuit dismissed by a judge earlier on in the process. This saves them from having to pay expensive legal bills and allows them to continue exercising their free speech rights.
For decades, we have been working to get Iowa SLAPP laws changed:
- In 1999, we defended a Des Moines neighborhood activist who spoke out at a city council meeting about a local rental property owner's documented violations of property codes. The owner sued, and the individual had to pay legal fees to defend herself. That same year, we lobbied for anti-SLAPP legislation in the Iowa Legislature.
- In 2021, we filed an amicus brief in support of a Sloan-area man who was sued after describing a local rental property owner on Facebook as "piece of shit" and a “slumlord”. It ended up in front of the Iowa Supreme Court.
The new law will still allow people who believe they have been publicly libeled or misrepresented to file a lawsuit.
It's important that everyone can speak truth to power without racking up crushing legal fees. Now, Iowans have more protections to do so.
